Domenico Fetti and the intrigues of painting

In the ten years that Domenico Fetti was active between the Duchy of Mantua and Venice, his sophisticated production, steeped in Christian and academic intellectual knowledge, underwent a real split that is now easier to identify with two different markets. The seriality of certain of his themes is justified precisely in this parallel multiplicity of commissions to which Fetti could only respond with speed, but with variety. This is not a diminutio, nor is it a mechanical activity: each original work was guaranteed by a monographic pictogram, by a hidden sign, by a concealed letter, almost as if it were an eclipsed imprint but visible to those who possessed, yesterday as today, the correct interpretative key. In contrast to the work in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, the David with the head of Goliath in Graz

is titled from the point of view of provenance, because already in Leopold Willelm's inventory in Vienna 1659 (No. 419, it was referred to as ‘von Fetti Original’), and the subject depicted is still an enigma to be solved today.